Watermelon cake
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella Based on a Black Star Pastry creation
For cake
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1/2 cup almond meal
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1/4 cup caster sugar
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1/2 cup (about 4 egg whites) at room temperature
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1/2 cup sugar
To decorate
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400ml cream
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3 tablespoons icing sugar
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3/4 kg watermelon
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1x 250g punnet strawberries (of which you'll probably use 2/3 or 3/4 of it depending on how much decoration you put on it)
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30grams Pistachios, toasted and roughly chopped
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dried rose petals
Step 1 - Make the dacquoise. Preheat the oven to 105C/220F. Trace a rectangle (I made a heart but a rectangle is easier to trim on the sides). In a separate bowl, mix almond meal and 1/4 cup sugar. Ensure that your beater and bowl are clean and free of grease. Beat eggs until soft peaks form and then add 1/2 cup of sugar one tablespoonful at a time until stiff peaks are reached.
Step 2 - Pipe the dacquoise onto the parchment (I didn't I spooned it and smoothed it but thinking back piping would have been a good idea) and make two cakes (you may even have enough for 3 depending on the size of your cake). Bake in the oven for 70-80 minutes until dried out. Cool.
Step 3 - Whip the cream with the icing sugar until stiff-ish so it can hold the weight of the fruit. Slice the watermelon thinly just under 1cm in thickness and wash and hull the strawberries and slice in half.
Step 4 - With the parchment side up so that the bottom of the dacquoise which is smoother is on top, place on plate and carefully peel back the parchment. Spoon 1/3 of the cream and spread using an angled palette knife of spatula on the base going to the edge. Place slices of watermelon as shown so that the base is covered with watermelon. Spoon another 1/3 of the cream on top of the watermelon.
Step 5 - Place other dacquoise face down again and carefully peel off the parchment. Spoon remaining third of the cream on top of this and spread and then top with strawberries, small watermelon pieces, toasted pistachios and rose petals. You can cut this into pieces using a very sharp knife, I found that a gentle sawing action was the most effective to cut through it.